UN House Scotland is proud to be partnered with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), who are seeking to push for the abolition of nuclear weapons with the attention of the upcoming Oppenheimer film.
A coalition of survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, victims of nuclear
testing and youth activists have written an open letter to Christopher Nolan, director of the
upcoming biography, Oppenheimer, in which they call for the film – and Nolan - to spark
awareness and debate of the contemporary threat nuclear weapons pose, as well as the
current global efforts to abolish them.
Robert Oppenheimer was a physicist who led the scientists who developed the first atomic
bombs for the United States government’s Manhattan Project that were then used to
destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 killing an estimated
214,000 people, mainly civilians.
"Just one nuclear bomb, considered crude by today’s standards, destroyed my city in the blink of an eye 78 years ago. Today, thousands more exist — ready and able to destroy our entire planet. No film can capture the true horror I survived in Hiroshima, but I hope audiences will use this as an opportunity to learn about the risks we face every moment, of every day.”"
- Setsuko Thurlow, survivor of the Hiroshima bombing and lifelong, Nobel prize-winning peace campaigner
Oppenheimer is due for release on July 21st in the US and UK and July 19 in France with a cast of leading Hollywood actors and is the subject of keen anticipation from fans of Nolan’s
work.
To learn more about the work of ICAN and to support their campaign, click here.